Description: Germany's Industrie 4.0 initiative, now the subject of a Prime Minister's Taskforce in Australia, and the Industrial Internet will significantly impact manufacturing and a wide range of other businesses. This new technology set allows better visibility into the factory and supply chain, better health and safety outcomes, better resource management and – perhaps most significantly – a shift in business models to servitisation. Over the last several years, CSIRO has conducted significant industry consultations to understand the current thinking of manufacturing companies concerning the role of information and data technologies in their businesses/with a special emphasis on the Industrial Internet/Internet of Things/Industry 4.0. The talk will summarise the findings of the engagement and attempt to demystify the differences between the Industrial Internet and Industry 4.0. We will also discuss opportunities and strategies for businesses to leverage these technologies to achieve business outcomes.

About the presenter: As a product manager in CSIRO’s Data61 business unit, Nico works to assist Australian (manufacturing) businesses to leverage modern information technology, the industrial internet and and Industry 4.0 technologies. The goal of this work is to make businesses more productive and to enable them to develop new business models, which are often services including a manufactured good. He does this through developing an understanding of how manufacturing companies think about the role of ICT in their businesses, through paper studies and deep industry consultations. The results of this work has been published as two discussion papers and extensively reported on by both tech news sites as well as mainstream national media such as the Guardian. Based on insights gained through this process and work from across CSIRO and engagements with external stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem, he develops value propositions which can address some of these pain points. One such example is the Industrial Internet Innovation Hub (i3 Hub), which, on the one hand seeks to raise the awareness, adoption and use of the industrial internet and Industry 4.0 in Australia and on the other also seeks to assist businesses wanting to use these technologies to develop new products and services for the world. Nico holds degrees from the Universities of York and Oxford.